


Break All the Dishes and Burn Down the House

by badgerling



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Flirting, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Idiots in Love, Immortal Murder Found Family, Joe Needs a Hug, Joe needs a decent night's sleep, Kissing, M/M, Missing Scene, Mostly fluff though, Nicky also needs a decent night's sleep, Nicky needs a hug, Not Beta Read, Post-Canon, Talks About Dying, This is a Nicky/Joe story and the other characters are only in it briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25359943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerling/pseuds/badgerling
Summary: There is anger, there is fear, and sometimes it boils over. Joe and Nicky know this. They're used to it. There is love, too, though, and that boils over as well.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 52
Kudos: 820





	Break All the Dishes and Burn Down the House

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd. All mistakes are mine.
> 
>  ** _Bold italics_** are for foreign languages.
> 
> Some day I will write longer stories with these characters, once I get rid of all of these little scenes that just keep occurring to me.
> 
> Not mine. Greg Rucka, Leandro Fernandez, Image Comics, and Netflix own them. No infringement intended.

Joe was angry.

That was obvious even before he slammed the front door to the safe house open, as he stormed up the stairs, even though no one had cleared the house yet, even though he didn't have his gun out, even though no one had even used the house in a year. He hadn't said a word in the car, only glaring at Booker while Nicky kept a solid, steel grip on Joe's hand. To keep him from violence, to ground him, to remind him that Nicky was still there, to remind Nicky that Joe was still there.

But they actually couldn't drive forever, Nicky couldn't keep that hold forever, Britain wasn't America, it wasn't even Central Europe, and eventually they pulled into a spot on the street in front of a two story house clearly built in the seventies. It blended in with the surrounding neighborhood, though, and Joe had never questioned how they had managed to keep it. Housing was a commodity, and humanity was running out of space.

The idea of that made Joe laugh.

They were all running out of space. It was going to be impossible to hide, to disappear, it already was. That just piled on top of the anger that was already boiling in his stomach.

Merrick might be the first to try and catch them. He wouldn't be the last.

Someone would try again to take Nicky.

It was that thought that fueled the punch he threw, angrily, at the wall at the top of the second floor landing. The hit landed hard enough that the wall dented and Joe's knuckles started to bleed. Briefly, but there was still blood on the back of his hand. He stared at it almost blankly.

He could hear the others finally trailing in after him, shouts of "Clear!" from people actually doing their jobs, and faintly, though the sound carried up the stairwell, Nile asked, "Why is he so angry?" It was an innocent question, even Joe couldn't fault it. After all, they had all fought side by side in the end. It should have been _fine_.

It was Booker that answered, though with a soft, "I hurt Nick-..." Joe could only imagine that the look Nicky gave him was not kind since Booker didn't finish nor did he say anything else. He just coughed, clearing his throat. There were footsteps on the stairs then, and Joe didn't move until he saw Nicky. He nodded just once before finally continuing down the hall. Stomping. Because he was angry. And he wanted them, wanted Booker, to know he was still angry.

He stormed into the bedroom at the end of the hall. There were, thankfully, enough bedrooms for all of them, well, Andy would have to share with someone, someone will need to watch over Andy anyway, just in case, until it was absolutely certain she wasn't going to die in the night. But maybe Joe and Nicky could finally get some sleep and not be woken up by someone else's nightmares, only their own. He doesn't slam the door shut behind him. He let Nicky close it with a soft click.

"Anticlimactic," Joe said with a shake of his head before he just...stopped. The bedroom was a dead end. There was a sink and mirror in the corner, but the actual shower and bathroom were in a different room off the hall, and here there was nowhere else to go. His shoulders slumped, and he leaned back against Nicky as the other man came up behind him and slid his arms around his waist.

"You're bleeding," Nicky replied,ignoring Joe's need to be dramatic.

"Not anymore," he said, holding up the hand that he had used to hit the wall, and Nicky took it and brought it to his lips, kissing each knuckle gently. Joe watched him over his shoulder in silence before he finally added, "I'm going to kill Booker."

"You are not going to kill Booker," Nicky said, dropping Joe's hand and letting go of his waist as he stepped around him, heading to the sink. He grabbed a washcloth from the pile of linens and turned the tap on, waiting for the water warm enough to be comfortable before he placed the cloth under the flow and made sure it was soaked before he gestured with his head towards the bed.

Joe exhaled, but he did as he was directed, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, hands resting on his thighs as Nicky moved between his legs and started washing the blood off of Joe's face in slow, careful strokes. Joe didn't speak at first, not until he couldn't control it anymore as he said, "You have blood and brains on your shirt, Nicolo, and that is Booker's fault."

"I believe that is the fault of the man who shot me, Yusuf, the man you killed rather spectacularly if Nile did not exaggerate," Nicky replied, smiling very faintly just before he drew the washcloth over Joe's eyes to wash away drops of blood.

"Used that move you came up with..." It takes Joe a second to remember. "..In 1637. When we were fighting the French." Nicky smiled at that, trailing the cloth down Joe's neck, and Joe let his head fall forward, pressing his forehead against Nicky's stomach.

"I didn't teach you that move." 

"I really like watching you work," and Joe laughed, moving his head slightly so that Nicky's shirt came up just enough that Joe could smell him, feel the heat of him, and he pressed forward until all he could feel was Nicky. He wrapped his arms around him, holding him close as Nicky continued to wipe the blood away. He didn't say anything else, but once Nicky let the washcloth fall away, and the cloth was replaced with his fingers massaging his scalp and neck, Joe tightened his arms, pulling Nicky as close as he could without toppling them both onto the bed.

"I was scared," Joe said, finally, the words muffled by Nicky's t-shirt and stomach, and Nicky just curled his fingers in Joe's hair, cupping the back of his head. "Even after Andy told us we could die, all those years ago, I didn't believe it. I didn't _want_ to believe it." Joe pulled back enough to look up at Nicky. "Why would Allah give me you, give us forever, just to take it away?" There was a faint pleading note in his voice, a petulant 'It's not fair!' that he hated. "But now..." He sighed and let his head fall forward again, nuzzling against Nicky's stomach.

"Now we have proof, and now we have to worry, and now you have to believe me, trust me when I say that I have faith that God would not have dropped us into this together if He did not intend for us to leave it together as well." Joe was pretty sure Nicky could feel him rolling his eyes even when he doesn't lift his head because Nicky actually pulled his hair, and not gently or teasingly. 

"Ow."

"Hush," Nicky admonished, and that, at least, was teasing, as Nicky dropped to his knees in front of Joe. It was a sight that had always done things to Joe, good things, pleasurable things, things that had been a sin to think centuries ago, especially about a priest, former or otherwise, and Joe can feel the corners of his mouth curve up in a kind of smile that would normally earn him a kiss, but tonight it just got his shoulder shoved.

"What? You know what the sight of you on your knees does to me, my heart." 

Nicky smiles as he brings his hands up to cup Joe's face. "I told you once, a long time ago, that I would never leave you. That has not changed. It will not change."

"We have no say in it, Nicolo," Joe replied, and he couldn't keep the sadness out of his voice. He didn't even try to mask it.

Nicky laughed, actually laughed, the kind that Joe could feel rolling through him, and he looked at Nicky with his head tilted in confusion. "Where you go, I go. Where I go, you go. There is no me without you, there is no you without me." He leaned forward and kissed Joe. It was not a gentle kiss, it was only a loving kiss because neither one of them could hide their feelings, they never had been, but it was hard and fierce, and Joe hissed into Nicky's mouth when his teeth caught Joe's lip and actually drew blood. "I will challenge God Himself if He tears you away from me," Nicky said those words into that kiss, pulling back just enough to smile, though Joe suspected that Nicky was entirely serious about the matter.

Joe pulled back, though, bringing his hand up to cup the side of Nicky's neck. He didn't say anything, just stroked his thumb over the pulse point until Nicky's eyes fell shut and he leaned into Joe's touch. "Promise me, Nicolo," Joe finally said, his voice very quiet, barely audible over the sound of the too-loud fan. "Do not do anything stupid if I am the one goes first."

Nicky leaned forward, resting his forehead against Joe's. He smiled, faintly, barely even a lifting of his lips, and when he answered, it was in Italian, " ** _I cannot, will not make that promise, my heart._** He pressed his mouth to Joe's, deepening the kiss immediately before pulling back to add, "There will be no first, Yusuf. We came into this together. There has to be a reason for that."

"Not everything has a reason, Nicolo."

" _This_ does. It's too big not to have a reason." He reached up, tapping his fingers gently against Joe's temple. "Think, my heart. What are the odds that you would be defending the exact section of wall that my commanders sent me against? The Holy City was large, is large. The walls...insurmountable, and yet." Joe chuckled then, taking a deep breath before shaking his head.

"Destiny." Joe hadn't believed that in the beginning. Everything had been too new, Nicolo too annoyingly beautiful, and it had become too much of his focus to protect the knight, too much, too soon, but eventually...there's coincidence and there's whatever it was with him and Nicky.

Nicky hummed. "Destiny." He slid his hand up Joe's neck and his fingers up into his hair. He cradled the back of his head for a moment. "There will be no first. We will not be left alone in this world." He brought their foreheads together for a moment, and Joe let his eyes fall closed.

"I will hold you to that, Nicky," Joe said, urging Nicky into a kiss as he pressed his own fingers into Nicky's hair before grimacing into the kiss. "You need a shower, my heart."

Nicky laughed, the sound very soft as he pressed their foreheads together again. He was quiet for a moment, both of them just enjoying the other's presence, the certainty. The comfort. It was Nicky who broke the silence, though, finally asking, "Do you remember Calama?"

That was not what Joe was expecting, and it took him a second to place the name. He asked with confusion in his voice, "The ruins?" He pushed into his memories a little bit more before the name, the ruins, and the reason all clicked in his mind. "Ah. The hot spring." He couldn't help his smile, the familiar one, more just a slightly curving up of his lips as he pulled back to look at Nicky. This time Nicky leaned in to kiss him, but only briefly before he sat back on his heels.

Nicky grinned, then, fast and wide. "That is the only reason I miss Byzantium. They had the best baths." He was still smiling as he rose to his feet, offering his hand out to Joe to help him up. Joe accepted the hand up, and he linked their fingers together before leading Nicky out the door and into the hall. He turned to the bathroom, but he had another thought suddenly, stopping and turning instead toward the stairs.

"Send Booker for food. We'll text him a list of first aid supplies and an address of who can get him all of it. For cheap," Joe called out to the others, and he didn't move until Nile called back up to them.

"The hell do you know about first aid?"

Joe was grinning as he looked to Nicky and replied, "Nicky was a medic in Bosnia. Things don't change that much." He squeezed Nicky's hand before bringing it up to his mouth to kiss it gently. He smiled again before adding, "We are showering." There were a couple of loud protests from the group on the first floor, a lot of fuss about them always taking too long, but it didn't matter.

"I was shot in the head!" Nicky shouted in reply, almost laughing too much to really be able to answer. Joe could only guess at the curse words (or that they even were curse words) Andy shouted up at them because they weren't in a language he actually spoke.

In that moment, there was just Nicky and nothing else mattered. Later there would be food and wound-tending and sentences passed and crimes answered.

Later.


End file.
